When the hot water comes on, the heating goes off. The central heating doesnt come back on for roughly an hour. So the house goes cold. After a long time it might come back on slowly. Its quite a big house having just over 15 radiators.

Does anyone have any suggestions?

majakdragon

10-08-2006 10:32 AM

Need some more info here. When you say" The hot water comes on, the heating goes off", where is the hot water going if not to the radiators? Most homes with hot water heat have the same source for both hot water (fixtures etc) and heating. It is possible that the boiler is not operating properly and heating the water fast enough to supply both heating and domestic needs. If radiators have been added recently, the boiler may be undersized.

mdshunk

10-08-2006 11:30 AM

If the system worked properly in the past, it sounds like a controls issue. For some reason the domestic hot water controls aren't returning prioriry over to the circulator controls when the domestic hot water demand is over. There's way too much information missing in the original post. There's no such thing as a typical hot water furnace arrangement in the US, and now we have to throw in any other curveballs that this UK installation might have. Post a mess of pictures of the furnace and associated controls, at least, and maybe we can help some more.

redline

10-08-2006 07:09 PM

Is this steam heat?
Hot water baseboard?
Indirect water heater?

flicksfan

10-09-2006 11:30 AM

central heating problem

Hi again! Thanks so much for your response. We have a Kingfisher Potterton Boiler which seems to work well. We have a new pump. In our boiler cupboard, we have a timer control, which we set to come on early morning. The heating will come on nicely, if we have the hot water off. But, if we set both heating and hot water to come on together - then only the hot water will come on, leaving rads cold.
The timer control seems to command the actuator (Drayton) below, which has an arm which swings between the water and the heating. To replace the whole actuator is expensive - but just the head of the actuator can be changed cheaply - but would this do the trick?
The UK system may be different from the US - if so - I thank you anyway for your responses. Very kind!

redline

10-10-2006 09:56 AM

Can you post a photo?
How long have you lived here?
Has this always operated like this?

flicksfan

10-12-2006 03:55 AM

central heating problem

Many thanks for your speedy responses - Have lived here 20 years and only started a problem last winter.
A neighbour read your answer about a controls issue and turned down the setting on the water tank, so that water would reach temperature more quickly and change over to rads faster. System worked better this morning when we tested it and water is more than hot enough. Also, he thinks the overall hall thermostatic controller is not showing a true reading. So, when we think it's on 68/70 f. it's really only on 62 degrees, so C.H. won't come on. We are testing that. Set to 80 degrees, everything works well, so that may be our answer.
It's an old system and slowing down - like us!
Many thanks for your support - and Happy Thanksgiving to all.